A DICTIONARY GBARI LANGUAGE - Roger Blench

A Dictionary of the Gbari Language Trial Edition Roger Blench and Musa Doma
Laterals
Phonetically, Gbari has an ordinary lateral [l] and an alveopalatal approximant [®]. Individual speakers
clearly distinguish the two sounds in their own speech The rule determining the realisation of [r] and [l] in
initial position is usually that [l] is pronounced before central and back vowels and [r] before front vowels.
Initial /r/ is rare and some of the words with this feature are Hausa loan-words.
Although the same rule applies in non-initial position, variability between speakers is more marked. For
example, in /kambulu/ 'pawpaw' there appears to be free variation between [l] and [r]. Hyman and Magaji
(1970) suggested that this type of variability may be linked to speakers' familairity with the Hausa soundsystem
where there are three distinct lateral phonemes.
Another problem of laterals is the relation between /l/ and /n/. These two can clearly be set up as
independent phonemes, as the simple CV verbs with these initial contrasts demonstrate. However, there exist
a number of doublets in the language which are recognised by speakers which suggest these are in free
variation in some contexts. For example;
grasshopper namberi lumberi
bad nabne labme
Hyman and Magaji (1970) also mention this phenomenon in relation to the adaptation of Hausa loanwords
and it may be that this is caused by some sort of interference.
Tone-bearing nasals forming an independent syllable are so far only recorded in initial position, e.g;
nkwa!
nnda
nca
Hallo!
Type of yam
three
The presence of the implosives /∫/ and /Î/ is most striking as these are not otherwise found in the Nupoid
group. They usually correspond to the ordinary plosive forms suggesting that consonant merger has taken
place -although presumably it must have occurred independently in all other branches.
Nasals and Nasalization
The single most difficult problem for the analysis of Gbari and for its orthography is the representation of
nasals. Hyman and Magaji (1971) analysed the situation for Gbagyi of Kuta. At a surface level, almost all
consonants appear to have a feature of +nasal as a release. In other words, post-nasal releases are as common
as a prosodic feature such palatalization and greatly add to the phonemic inventory.
An alternative interpretation is that the vowels are nasalised as in the Nupe group, but that the nasalisation
has spread leftwards. One argument for this interpretation is the variability between speakers. One speaker
may consistently articulate a nasal consonantal release, whereas another will sometimes nasalise the vowel.
James (1990) also mentions this, giving the example of 'ear' as realised either [knúbwà] or [ku)bwa]
Intermediate forms such as CNV ~ - kpnã also occur, but there is no reason to consider these distinctive.
Nasalization of a vowel is realised as a bilabial nasal when the C 2 is either /b/ or /w/. Thus;
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cimwa 'tree' but cinkpwe 'stool' and
gbambo 'gourd' but bantu 'spirit'
In some cases the nasalisation has to be analysed as affecting the consonants in both directions. For example;